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Blair leaves office with better ratings than Thatcher |
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Tuesday, 29 May 2007 |
Tony Blair will leave office with higher approval ratings than former Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and with a greater sense that he has remained in touch with public attitudes.
Figures from Ipsos MORI show that Blair leaves with approval ratings of
-38 per cent (net satisfaction) compared to Thatcher’s outgoing
approval rating of -46 per cent. Similarly 51 per cent of those
surveyed thought Blair was out of touch with ordinary people when he
announced his decision to leave, compared with a figure of 63 per cent
for Thatcher.
The research shows that Blair’s ten years in government saw a sea
change in the issues that concerned voters. In June 1997, 39 per cent
of respondents said they were concerned about unemployment, a figure
that had dropped to 8 per cent in April 2007 while concern about the EU
and the euro dropped from 30 per to 2 per cent in the same time frame.
However, public concern about immigration and race relations rose from
3 per cent to 36 per cent while worries about defence and foreign
affairs rose from 2 per cent to 27 per cent in same period.
Blair leaves office trailing David Cameron by two per cent in public
satisfaction and with 31 per cent of respondents saying they would
definitely vote Labour if an election were held tomorrow, compared with
38 per cent who said they would vote Conservative and 20 per cent who
would vote Lib Dem.
Frustratingly for Blair, who has overseen huge funding increases for
the NHS and substantial improvements in many areas of the health
service, a majority of respondents believe the system will get worse
rather than better. However, in the field of education, the Blair era
saw concern with schools and the education system in general fall from
49 per cent of respondents to 19 per cent now.
No one has commented on this article.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 29 May 2007 )
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